Fall camping

We spent a gorgeous weekend in the woods. We headed over to the deer camp woods late Friday afternoon and pulled at almost exactly the same time as the klan Bryan. The kids were way excited, Molly was Jazzed and the adults could barely contain themselves. We set up camp and the kids headed to the ridge to start building forts, cities and become wood tycoons. We jumped out of the vehicles and I asked Becky how long it was since she had been in 'this' woods. She said she was about Evan's age, I laughed at her joke and then shed a tear when I realized she was not kidding. Friday evening was pretty low key with general exploration around the campsite and a small fire. The kids played tag and tossed glow sticks around, before some smores around the campfire. The kids (and Becky) petered out early and Brad and I stayed up to watch the fire and protect camp from the demons in the forest. Saturday morning was cool and we hunkered around the campfire with coffee while the kids tested their aim with BB guns and Brad's old .22. We headed out for a hunting hike with everyone packing except Molly about 4 minutes before Grandpa and Grandma showed up in their new camper. Turns out Grandpa calls it a camper by Grandma thought it was more like a trunk--any rate we just missed them. So they hung around camp reading and tending the fire while we were off setting up blinds and generally hollering in the woods. Even amongst the noise Merrick was able to tote his BB gun and put a serious stalk on an oblivious chipmunk. The chipmunk eventually skampered away only to appear about 20 feet away, but it was still way cool to watch Merrick pussy foot through the crunchy fall leaves. Our hike pushed almost 3 hours of woods time for the littlest among us that is quite a feat and the were troopers. There was more fort building and running in the woods and plenty of BB gun plinking. Bob, myself and the kids headed across H to hunt and hike a little more and Grandpa let the kids shoot their BB guns at his hat that he hung on a branch--he also asked me to shoot it with the 20 gauge I was carrying--he spent the rest of the weekend in a well ventilated lid. Sophia got her first kill on the hike. After passing up a frog on the trail I allowed her to take a shot at the second one we saw, it was about a 15 foot shot and I wasn't expecting her to smoke it so precisely. She was way excited but we also talked about not shooting things just for sport and let several other ones go. When we returned Brad was awake and ready to shoot clay pigeons. The adults took their turns with the various gauges we had brought along and then the kids got into the action as well. Evan was able to run 6 in a row, with the new 20 gauge that Grandpa brought and Sophia too shot the 'big gun' a couple of time. I suspect that she is the most experienced shooter in terms of types of guns shot in her grade. The rain came after we went to bed and Sophia woke up about 1 in the morning and had to puke. There is a sad parental feeling holding your little girl in dark and rain while she pukes her guts out. Once I got her cleaned up in the camper she said she felt much better and thought maybe it was all the snacks, rootbeer and cartwheels--she is an intuitive girl. The rain continued into Sunday morning and we packed up in a light rain and headed home with everyone already thinking about the next time we can get back out there, and in the words of the kids, "Do some real camping."

Rocketing through the Harvest Season

The end of summer has brought to us a bounty of harvest as the new school year starts for everyone. Merrick is officially a pre-schooler while Sophia has started 3rd grade. In our neck of the woods the beginning of fall really just signals that the roads are clear during any Packer's game. With Thursday being the season opener for the Packers, Sophia's classes ended about noon to prevent any traffic delays before the 8 pm game and Merrick spent most of the day tailgating at preschool with all of his friends. I think kids are born with jerseys on over here. We did find some time last weekend to get out for a hike along a nearby creek and although it was cool on Monday, it certainly has heated up again for this weekend. We continued to pull tomatoes and potatoes out of the garden and have frozen about ten pounds of tomatoes and filled a good part of a five gallon bucket with potatoes on Friday night, killing several voles as we moved around in the straw. Saturday was a fast paced day with a couple of thrift sales, in which Sophia scored a new book, as well as a trip to the meat market. The meat market trip was really for Merrick. He has been doing so well at eating slices of pepperoni cut from a whole stick that I thought we would take him to the 60 foot meat counter and try some spicy beef sticks. He ate about two or three bites before becoming satiated from the bovine delight. The highlight of Saturday morning was a trip to buy our first model rockets. We built them in the kitchen and then took them out to the soccer fields to launch them into space. It was pretty awesome and I think the kids are hooked. They have each spent a good amount of time perusing the mini-catalog that came with the rocket kits and are both talking big about the size and height of their next rockets. Merrick's second lift off actually peaked and started heading back down before the final engine burst to send the parachute out. The parachute didn't come out so instead the rocket just accelerated straight down and stuck into the ground about two inches--it was awesome. Merrick's Rocket was called the "FireHawk," but being a Green Bay kid he kept calling it the AJ Firehawk. We ended the day with a campfire and some smores in the back yard after a gourmet supper of little cesar's (intentionally in lowercase). Throughout the weekend, Mitch ate very well. The kids caught cicada for him, a summer goal of ours, as well as several crickets and grasshoppers. He has yet to finish off one of the large black crickets and as I type the cricket is slowly chirping out his own funeral tune. Sophia spent Sunday between our house and a friends and Merrick and I walked around the neighborhood chainsawing some of the down limbs from last week's storm to replenish for the fall campfires to come. It must have been a good weekend because I just had to roust Merrick from a sunny spot in the middle of the living room floor. He had nodded off without covers or pillow with plenty of Oreo drool to show his contentedness.